Dry spell destroys early maize crop

The bulk of Zimbabwe's early planted maize crop has been irreparably damaged by a prolonged dry spell across the country in January and early February, a national crop assessment unit was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "The early planted maize crop in most provinces is reported to be a total write-off as it was severely affected by the mid-season dry spell at tasselling stage," the Department of Agricultural, Technical and Extension Services (Agritex) said in a report. "The recent rains in most parts of the country have greatly improved the general condition of the late planted crop but with high chances of getting low yields." It added that the dry spell had also affected the leaf size of some of the season's tobacco crop and was likely to cause a fall in yields. Tobacco is Zimbabwe's major cash crop and rakes in approximately a third of the country's foreign currency earnings. In a recent report, USAID's Famine Early Warning System (FEWS) said that while Zimbabwe had adequate maize stocks until the next harvest, output from the 2000/01 (November-March) crop was likely to be down since cash constraints had forced communal farmers to use low-yielding maize seed varieties. FEWS said contingency plans needed to be put in place to deal with a possible shortage. Communal farmers produce about 60 percent of Zimbabwe's maize. The balance comes from commercial farmers who say output could fall by 50 percent due to financial woes and disturbances caused by war veterans illegally occupying white-owned farms.